Rock of Bral

The Rock was roughly ovaloid in shape, about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) long and half a mile thick on the other two axes. The gravity plane ran through the center lengthwise, such that the Rock had a top side and a bottom side. The city of Bral was located on the "upper" side. The "bottom" side was government property owned by the ruling prince and contained hangers for his fleet.

The edges of the Rock were steep and dangerous to climb, so it was challenging to traverse from one side of the asteroid to the other without using a tunnel to pass through. Rescue stations were placed along the edge to recover unfortunate souls who might fall into the gravity plane and begin to drift out into wildspace.

Fresh water on Bral was provided by Lake Bral, a huge chasm plunging deep enough to pass through the gravity plane. The lake was periodically filled with fresh water from harvested ice asteroids. Under normal usage, it needed refilling every 4–7 years, at which point the Bralian Navy located and lassoed an ice asteroid, brought it back, broke it up in space into chunks of 1 ton (910 kilograms) in mass, which were carefully aimed and dropped into the lake until full. All up, the work took up to three months. The water was treated with animal cultures and waste-eating monsters to keep its waters pure for drinking.

Oxygen and food were produced by vegetation on the lower side of the asteroid. Most of the work at tending the fields and groves was done by convicted criminals as part of their sentence.

Also on the underside were massive vanes, which were enormous sails crafted from the wings of a radiant dragon. The sails allowed the Rock to be steered slightly as needed in its orbit.

The water is treated and maintained by detritivorous creatures such as Otyughs, Neo-Otyughs and Lifeleech Otyughs.

THERE’S ONLY ONE RULE ON THE ROCK OF BRAL: LEAVE YOUR VENDETTAS AT THE DOCKS

The Rock was ruled by Prince Andru, grandson of a bandit king named Cozar, but several other factions wielded power as well.

General lawlessness prevails in much of the city, but that’s not to say that order doesn’t exist. Simply put, most citizens police themselves. No city watch patrols the streets. Tavernkeepers hire muscular folks to break up fights and toss out drunkards. Market vendors trust their own eyes to spot shoplifters. Every person on the Rock is expected to have enough sense to hang onto their purse and not be taken in by a swindler.

Serious crimes, such as arson, can be reported to one of the city’s three magistrates, who preside over the Low City, the Middle City, and the High City, respectively. If the magistrate concludes that the situation warrants their attention, the Magistrate’s Watch is dispatched to investigate and take offenders into custody, if necessary. Most members of the Magistrate’s Watch use the veteran stat block.

Reporting crimes is voluntary, and many folks don’t bother to do so, since the resulting investigation and legal proceedings are likely to take up too much of their time.

Underbarons

Four underbarons, each one equivalent to the master of a thieves’ guild, compete among themselves for greater shares of influence and income in the city. Despite their status as lords of criminal fiefdoms, the underbarons enjoy the prince’s tolerance, if only because each one’s existence serves as a check against the others.

The businesses in any given area of the city operate under the protection of one of the underbarons. That service is paid for through the collection of “insurance” fees. The arrangement isn’t strictly extortion, because it’s common for an underbaron to reimburse clients who suffer losses because of a rival guild’s actions.

The four current Underbarons are as follows:

Ozamata. This lawful evil human controls the docks and most of the Low City.

Meredin Sandyfoot. This neutral good halfling, headquartered in a neighborhood known as the Burrows, holds sway over craftspeople.

The Juggler. This chaotic good elf oversees a network of swindlers and minstrels. Her real name is Kiria Evensong, and she runs the Juggler’s Folk Guildhouse.

The Unknowable One. Within the cavernous interior of the Rock dwells a mysterious underbaron who specializes in smuggling. This underbaron—a mind flayer—breeds intellect devourers and uses them to turn Bralian citizens into spies.

The asteroid contained only a single city, named Bral, which was one of the most cosmopolitan cities in any crystal sphere.

Bral is populated by an outlandish collection of traders, rogues, mercenaries, pirates, nobles, and entrepreneurs. Generally, law enforcement is sporadic, which means that order is an elusive concept. Most folks who call the Rock home adhere to two principles: mind your own business whenever possible, and enough gold can fix anything.

Despite the Rock being a haven for pirates, it was also home to the only temple to Tyr, god of justice, in Realmspace that did not lie on the planet of Toril. The Pantheist Temple of Tyr was home to priests who held a number of non-standard religious views, but nevertheless they felt compelled to fight crime and injustice wherever they found it. Thus, they waged a number of crusades and wars on crime on the Rock of Bral. Needless to say, the Tyrrans and their god were not popular on Bral.

Rock of Bral cuisine had some unique dishes. The kitchen in Harper's Hold, lying in Waterdeep, Toril, had cookbooks with recipes from all over the Realms and other worlds, including from the Rock of Bral.

The Rock was heavily fortified. It included a system of nine ballista towers on the topside that protected the city. Each such stone tower was hexagonal and 25 feet (7.6 meters) tall. Atop each tower was a dwarven-built heavy ballista set in a special mount that permitted it to be aimed any direction, including straight up from the gravity plane. A complicated counterweight mechanism within the tower aided the fifteen crewmembers in reloading it, such that it could fire once every ten seconds! Each ballista had an effective range of 2,000 yards (1,800 meters), which was well beyond the extent of the Rock's air envelope. A squad of crossbowmen and shieldbearers were tasked with protecting the ballista engineers, and each tower was stocked with 50 heavy crossbows and hundreds of crossbow bolts for this purpose. The crossbowmen fired in volleys of 25 bolts at once in regular spaced ranks. These smoothly drilled crews operated under the leadership of the noble houses of Bral.

On the bottom side of the Rock was the Citadel, a heavily armed fortress.

Patrolling the Rock at all times were at least four hammerships and four squid ships, but the full naval power of the Prince was unknown.

Prince Andru also had a contract with a group of wizards known as The Fireball Alliance, who acted as a magical defense force for the Rock.

Within the whole of the Rock of Bral were a mazework of tunnels and dungeons, the ruins of the asteroid's various previous inhabitants. These extensive caverns had never been fully explored and almost certainly held ancient artifacts and monsters.

The Rock had changed hands many times in its history. Indeed, humans had only been living on the Rock since the 12th or 13th century DR. The original inhabitants were unknown, but cavern expeditions into the center of the asteroid revealed artifacts indicating that mind flayers lived in the Rock around the 6th century, and beholders more recently than that. Scholars believed that the beholders had exterminated the mind flayers and that the beholders had destroyed themselves in infighting. However, neither illithids nor beholders had any records of past settlements on the Rock—unless they were simply hiding that knowledge for some reason.

After the illithids and beholders, a clan of about 200 dwarves seemed to have settled the Rock. Their ruins appeared to have been from the 10th century. They left no tombs or memorials and seemed to have vanished without a trace, with pots still in the fireplace and blades still on the anvil.

After this, the Elven Imperial Fleet used the Rock as a recreation station, but they, too, eventually abandoned it.

The Rock traces its roots back to roughly 170 years ago, when the eponymous Captain Bral established a pirate refuge here. Captain Bral, a space pirate, "discovered" the Rock of Bral near the start of the 13th century. He planted trees and crops and lived within the caves that later became the docking caverns.  The asteroid became a haven for thieves and cutthroats, and among them a few merchants and entrepreneurs set up shop. Even in a climate of lawlessness, the place evolved into something resembling a settlement of citizens. Bral assembled a group of pirates known as Black Brotherhood, The, and over time, a small town developed on the surface of the asteroid. When Bral was finally killed by the elves, the pirates of the asteroid town named the settlement.  After Captain Bral’s death, the burgeoning city became known as Bral, in his honor, and its location as the Rock of Bral. For the next several decades, various pirate captains held sway in the city, but none of them demonstrated an interest in trying to take over sole leadership of the city.

Over time, the population of the Rock shifted, until by the end of the 13th century, there were more merchants and shopkeepers on Bral, selling goods and ale to the pirates, than pirates themselves. At this time, the pirate Captain Cozar literally purchased every piece of land on the whole asteroid from the merchants until, by the end of only several months, he owned the Rock of Bral. Next, he evicted any pirate who would not lease land from him or operate a legitimate business. In this way, Cozar became the first prince of Bral, and established the House of Cozar.

Eventually, the merchants and tavernkeepers who made their livings on the Rock became as numerous as the pirates and brigands who sought refuge there. One of the pirate captains, Cozar, sensed that times were changing on the Rock—that the days of lawlessness were coming to an end. Through a series of strategic alliances and shrewd business deals, he consolidated his political power and dubbed himself Prince Cozar, the Rock’s first overlord. Under Prince Cozar’s long reign, the city evolved from a pirate hideout into a major city, attracting profit-seekers, adventurers, and other more respectable types.

Upon Cozar’s death, the rule of Bral passed to Frun, his son and heir. Frun was far from an able politician. Rather, he was a hedonist whose overindulgences compromised his authority. Business leaders and other influential types grabbed power where they could, and by the end of his reign, Frun was little more than a figurehead. His only notable accomplishments were the renovation of the royal palace and the construction of the arena that bears his name.

Frun was succeeded by his son, Calar, whose bearing and tastes resembled those of his father but whose time as the overlord lasted only days. Calar died six years ago under mysterious circumstances shortly after taking the throne; his body was found floating in space just beyond the asteroid’s air envelope. Leadership of the Rock passed to Calar’s younger brother, Andru, who had a group of malcontents arrested and executed for the crime within days.

Though his place on the throne is secure for now, Prince Andru is merely one player in a maze of political intrigue. He has a host of agents and forces loyal to him, but he must act with consideration, since he has opponents who would rather see Bral ruled by a more ineffectual leader or by a council that could more easily be influenced. Andru maintains his strong base of support because he is a serious and intelligent person—often likened to his grandfather, Prince Cozar, in this regard—and he isn’t easily intimidated.